PMEX halts red chilli trade on quality, supply issues

KARACHI: Online trade of Sindh’s red chilli remains halted at the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX) due to a lack of interest among traders, as well as poor quality of the commodity and declining supplies, stakeholders said on Friday.

A progressive farmer from Kunri, Sindh and Red Chilli Growers Association’s representative Mian Saleem told The News that “we had to import 400 containers of chilli from Egypt for our consumption last year. Previously, we used to export”.

Online trade of chilli stopped two years back “as quality of Sindh’s chilli deteriorated because of an unknown virus” and they were unable to meet demand. The virus attacked premium quality chilli in Sindh, which affected supplies.

Sadly, despite detection no efforts were made to treat the viral disease in the past two years. “I have raised my voice at both the federal and provincial government level, but the issue remains unresolved. Virus has not been removed,” he added. When the issue remained unresolved, production continued to lower also affecting trade at the PMEX.

Sindh Agriculture Growth Programme, a World Bank-funded project, which earlier helped online trade and growers save 50 percent post-harvest period was no more effective for the farmers. “It was a bureaucracy laid project demanding innovations in the crop patterns, but our proposal related to innovation was rejected,” Saleem said. Besides quality issue, online trade ended as the buyers avoided going in the process of documentation at the PMEX, said one official who had facilitated the trade. Earlier, farmers received higher prices on the platform as chillies sold through this project met the international aflatoxin permissible level. Online chilli trading through this project started in 2016 and continued till 2019.

Aflatoxin is produced when chillies are dried on the ground. They should rather be dried on green sheets. Growers were given 70 percent subsidy on baskets used for collecting chillies, while they received Rs1,000 extra as quality premium on their consignments. In Sindh, chillies are grown on an area of 38.4 thousand hectares with production of 80,000 tons. Sindh contributes around 85 percent to red chilli production in Pakistan.

The average yield of 1.7 tons per hectare contributes 1.5 percent to the country’s GDP. Kunri, a small town of Umerkot is called the home of red chillies that contributes more than 80 percent to the country’s red chilli production. Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of red chillies after India, China and Mexico.

Technology packages such as introducing polyester drying mats, and sheets to cover the harvested crop for preventing dew formation, are provided to famer and grower associations on 30 percent cost-sharing bases.

Unfortunately, still half of the red chillies are wasted due to contamination and aflatoxin. However, according to Saleem, growers had started understanding the difference between old and current farming practices.